52.2 percent of people questioned in the region, the focal point of separatist unrest that has seen pro-Moscow militants seize a string of towns, said they were against joining Russia while 27.5 percent favored rule from Ukraine's former Soviet master Moscow.

Among the 3,200 respondents across Ukraine's entire Russian-speaking southeast, the number of those opposed to Moscow taking control rose to 69.7 percent, according to the poll from Kiev's Institute for International Sociology published in the Russian-language Weekly Mirror newspaper.

In the Donetsk region, where separatists have declared an independent republic and demanded a referendum on autonomy, 38.4 percent said they backed Kremlin demands to federalize Ukraine and 41 percent said they wanted a decentralization of power.

Inhabitants in the east remain highly suspicious of Kiev's interim authorities, who took over from pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych after his ouster in February following months of bloody protests.

Some 74 percent of respondents said they consider acting President Oleksandr Turchynov to be illegitimate, the poll said.

Russia, which NATO says has some 40,000 troops on the border, has said it has the right to intervene militarily in Ukraine to protect Russian speakers and has denied Western allegations that it is behind the separatist unrest.

But 57.2 percent of those polled in Donetsk said they felt their rights have not been violated and 66.3 percent said they were against a Russian military intervention. (*****)

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